Carriers are installing Optical Transport Network (OTN) transport equipment first, but OTN switch deployment should catch up fast, says Infonetics Research. Combined, the two segments will create a $10.6 billion market by 2015 according to OTN Hardware Market Outlook, which the market research firm asserts is the first report to track, segment, and assess vendor market share for both OTN transport equipment and OTN switching equipment.

Infonetics says that 92% of OTN spending went to transport equipment in 2011. However, the OTN switching segment is growing much faster than OTN transport, a phenomenon that will continue as carriers roll out 40-Gbps and 100-Gbps coherent technology, according to the report.

"Each segment is in a different stage of adoption and has a wildly different growth rate,” confirms Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “Case in point: OTN switching revenue jumped 132% in 2010 over 2009, while OTN transport revenue grew 9%. Both segments are growing at a pace that far outstrips the 3.7% CAGR of the overall optical market."

For example, OTN switching and transport system sales combined to make up 45% of global optical equipment spending (including WDM and SDH/SONET) in the first half of 2011. That share should increase to 70% of the total by 2015, the report asserts.

Huawei currently rules both the OTN transport and switching markets, thanks in part to the fact that China's telecom carriers were the first to embrace all-OTN networks, including the largest installations of OTN switching.

Infonetics' OTN hardware report provides regional and global market size, forecasts, vendor market share, and analysis for OTN transport hardware and OTN switching hardware, including OTN port revenue forecasts by port type and speed. The report includes OTN hardware market drivers, regional OTN trends, OTN vendor market share notes, OTN service provider survey data, and comparison's to the overall optical network hardware market.

by Lightwave Staff
February 14, 2012